TheFunPolice

I'm also open for the first time ever to actually believing that Buffalo sports teams are cursed. If there was one man who you would never in a million years expect to become the subject of national ridicule for something off the field it's Sean McDermott.

After processing this for a day, I've come to these conclusions. First, I'm truly shocked. McDermott is now a trending meme for using the perpetuators of one of the nation's greatest tragedies to make some clumsy point about leadership. People are dunking on McDermott the person, not the anti-clutch HC. Nobody saw that coming. This entire episode sort of shatters the façade of an in control, serious leader, which is really McDermott's greatest strength. Turns out players are trying not to laugh at him while he makes his incredibly dumb speeches, and now he and the Bills are a national laughingstock. All that said, none of this matters, because we have Josh Allen and he will lead the team to enough wins to keep McDermott employed. We are basically the Norv Turner/ Phillip Rivers Chargers teams. Great QB who has to play with an anchor at HC. That's my prediction for Allen's career. I have zero hope that ownership figures it out and gets Allen an offensive minded HC while he is still in his prime. We're just going to have to overcome McDermott to win. He's apparently an insecure, Michael Scott type who means well but makes speeches that make him look like a clown, freezes in big moments, has to get all of the credit and none of the blame, and wants to hamstring Josh Allen's game. But he's not getting fired. The owner loves him and he has had enough success here W/L wise, and will continue to as long as Allen is here. And he will never live this down. It's been 20+ years, but a lot of people still have raw emotions about 9/11. This is the only team that actually plays in NY State, and I would expect a less than warm welcome for Sean the next time the Bills play at Met Life. I do expect the team to make the playoffs, which will of course be used as a reason to keep McDermott. Eventually the issues with Diggs only end one way: him off the team. Then we have to fill the WR spot in rounds 5-7, because we'll draft a DB or LB in rounds 1-3 who McDermott won't play next season because he's not a veteran player. Rinse and repeat.

Steelers are done. They'll continue to lose from here on out.

Needed 2 yards and threw it deep No wonder guys like Brady dominated this league. Most teams play dumb.

Lol Trubisky's passes are so off target

Well, when the other team has an offense that struggles to get a first down it could work

The teams ahead of us are bad and won't win consistently

My God refs are such a joke

Offense looks so hard for these teams

We play there every season. That reception will be ugly

Does Harbaugh even coach games anymore? He seems to be suspended for most of the year every season.

Imagine if this story came out right before week 1 this season. McDermott would not have been safe in that stadium.

It has to be tough to know that so many people that worked or played here see McDermott as a well meaning awkward doofus. Definitely not the calm, detail oriented leader he wants to portray. That's almost the worst part.

I'm not surprised about the "culture" stuff and blaming people and lack of accountability. We've all either said it before or heard it anyway. I AM a bit shocked at the notion of McDermott as a bumbling clown, players trying not to laugh while he speaks. I was under the impression that he had that messaging part down, and was just difficult to work with or something and froze in big moments. I didn't imagine once that he would be standing up there blabbering about 9/11 or the woman who downed in the river by Niagara Falls while they players were like "at least he means well" like he's grandpa who didn't take his meds.

Leslie Frazier is another situation. Totally bizarre, no real answer as to what happened. It's a pattern.

Well, apparently some did for this article. Also, honeymoon period. Things were newer and going better, and maybe the players at the time just said WTF? to themselves and mocked him behind his back but chalked it up to him being an awkward weirdo who meant well. That's basically what the Dunn article says. Regardless of the motivation behind revealing it, if he said it, he said it.

These quotes from Deadpsin make the 9/11 story sound even more legit, because they try to explain why McDermott might have tried to use that example. Not the type of thing you would include in a totally made-up hit piece: Players who spoke anonymously to Dunne were taken aback by the “horrible, horrible reference.” One coach added that McDermott “doesn’t have bad intentions. He’s just so clueless that he couldn’t believe that it was a big deal when the players were losing their minds.” Other players tried to rationalize it from McDermott’s perspective. “In his brain it was, ‘If evil can accomplish this, then imagine what we can accomplish’ doing things the right way. The message was just f—ked up.” To me, this sounds 100% believable.

McDermott is already getting obliterated in the sports media and this just came out. Just google his name and you'll see what I mean. Tomorrow a good portion of sports talk will be ridiculing and roasting Sean McDermott. I ALWAYS hope we win, but man, if we don't everyone with a story is going to emerge from the shadows to take their shot. You have to ask yourself why, if he's such a stand up guy. Coaches and players can respect (but not like or be happy about) being let go for not getting the job done. This is downright family laundry, scorched earth type stuff.

Well, either it's true, or he made up 25 sources and concocted the entire story, or the 25 sources all made it up and are lying to Dunne BTW, does Leslie Frazier still work for the Bills? Why is that a question that is so hard to answer? At first I was worried that something was wrong with him, but then he's out there attending the NFL's head coach symposiums trying to get a HC gig in 24. It's just weird. Imagine if Spagnolo suddenly decided to "take a year off to rest" and the chiefs and Reid wouldn't say what's going on, whether he would be back, or give any updates. Then Spags is out there hawking himself for a HC gig. All the while KC tries to act like he wasn't fired, didn't quit, but won't tell you anything else.

I think of it this way. Players get cut all the time. Coaches are jerks all the time. Assistants get fired all the time. That's the NFL. None of that seems to rise to the level of animosity displayed here. Why is there seemingly a motivation to destroy McDermott?

This quote from the Florio article linked above lends credibility, IMO, because it sounds like a genuinely perplexed player trying to find a McDermott friendly explanation for bringing up 9/11: Dunne has quotes from multiple unnamed players and coaches regarding the incident. “I don’t know why he’s that awkward but his social skills are lacking,” an unnamed player told Dunne. “Maybe he’s just wound-up thinking about ball. You’ve got to talk to the team every day. That’s one where maybe he heard it on a podcast. Next episode! That’s not the one to lead with. He was trying to bring the team together. It was a horrible, horrible reference. He missed the mark.”

These are pretty specific and brutal takedowns. People say "I'll bet guys hate Belichick too." Belichick is a grumpy jerk who demands you have no fun and do everything his way. Everyone knows it. That's the "dirt" on him. But he won a lot so players put up with it. Not exactly breaking news to publish an article with the headline "Former Players Say Belichick is a Grumpy Jerk in Practice Who Doesn't Like Fun, Smiles, or Kittens." That's different from being upset because you were let go. That's the business. you just don't see this type of stuff with other coaches. For example, there are MANY pretty damning stories from people who know about what the Colts building was like under Frank Reich: guys falling asleep in meetings, strolling in late, being on their phones, ignoring the coaches... But people genuinely like the guy as a person (just obviously not as a HC) and he treats people well, so there's no motivation to bury the guy publicly. Jut fire him and move on. No need to humiliate the man in public. If this McDermott stuff is true. 1st, this feels like a coordinated hit in the media. 2nd, it is only going to get worse, especially if the wheels fall off this season. There are apparently many people who want to destroy McDermott's reputation.

we know for sure that: 1. He never really answered for 13 seconds 2. His defense routinely comes up short in the playoffs 3. There was/is some serious issue with Diggs (to the point where his brother is even tweeting about getting him out of Buffalo) 4. Mike Florio makes his cryptic little Jenga tower references just about every time the Bills have a tough day at the office 5. Leslie Frazier abruptly decides to take a year off to "recharge" while attending HC workshops and giving interviews. But he's still with the team, unless he's not. Allegedly. No real answer as to what is going on there. Lots of weird stuff goes on with the Bills. IF this stuff is true then it is well-known around the league and just waiting to all come spilling out once the wheels come completely off. The Bills are a top NFL team in terms of interest now, so switch "Mike McCarthy" or "Andy Reid" or "Mike McDaniel" or "John Harbuagh" or "Kyle Shanahan" for McDermott and ask yourself what your reaction, not to mention the NFL media reaction, would be. Would it be denial? Would you rush to John Harbuagh or Mike McCarthy's defense, for example? Or would you laugh and enjoy the chaos on a rival team? Because IF this stuff is real then that's exactly what is going to happen to McDermott. He and the Bills will be getting dunked on nationwide because the sports media LOVES this sort of stuff. IF there are 25 source who participated in this piece then people will be coming out of the woodwork to take their shots.

I'm hesitant to add my two cents after all the puke emojis and thumbs down I got in the cheese steak thread, but I learned an awesome recipe out of it so I'll reciprocate here. Brisket is amazing, of course. But crazy expensive, and it can take a really long time. It's still the king, but the below procedure is a great 2nd place, especially if you don't have a huge crew to feed and don't want to smoke a whole brisket. A FANTASTIC alternative (and one that we will be making Sunday) is to smoke a good quality thick cut chuck roast. We get our at Wegmans, usually in the 3.5-4 lb range. The biggest one you can find. You don't want small/thin because it could dry out on you before it's really tender. Season heavily and put into a moderate temperature smoker. The key is to very slowly bring it to 175 (ish) degrees in the smoker, then wrap tightly in foil and put in a 200 degree oven for a couple of hours (or just use the smoker itself as the oven) until juicy and tender. Be sure not to let it go too far to where it becomes like pulled pork (although it will still taste great that way too). We just prefer being able to slice it. When ready, slice and serve however you enjoy brisket. We love making sandwiches out of it on toasted Costanzo rolls and using homemade BBQ sauce (white or red). Extremely flavorful, tender, and juicy due to the fat content of chuck roast. Great for a few people, doesn't take more than 5-6 hours total, and is cheaper than brisket, although not "cheap" per se.

I'm telling you... I had a dream: Bills/ Lions in the Super Bowl and we were up 40 something to 20 something very late